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tv   Democracy Now  LINKTV  April 27, 2020 4:00pm-5:01pm PDT

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04/27/20 04/27/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter r of the panandemic, s isis democracy now! as mucuch of the united states remains on lockdown, abortion rights are under attack nationwide. we'll get an update on the fight for abortion access with alexis mcgill johnson, acting president and ceo of the planned parenthood federation of america. we'll also speak with the director and writer of a powerful new dramatic film called "never rarely sometimes
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always" that follows a 17-year-old girl as she travels from pennsylvania to new york city to get an abortion without having to notify her parents. >> i'm not ready to be a mother. where else could you go? >> nowhere in concert venue. amy: then, president trump dangerously suggested injecting disinfectants could help patients sick with the coronavirus. pres. trump: and then i see the disinfectant that knocks it out in one minute. is there way we can do something inside orby injection -- almost a cleaning? amy: a after trump's remarks, governors reported a spike in phone calls about taking disinfectants. we will look at "what we know about the most touted drugs
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tested for covid-19" with tanya lewis, associate editor for health and medicine at scientific american. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the worldwidide death toll from the novel coronavirus has topped 207,000 with nearly 3 million confirmed cases across the globe. more than a quarter of the deaths havave beenen here inin e united statates where ththe recd death toll has topped 55,000 but the actual number is believed to be significantly higher. in europe, spain, italy, and france -- three of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic -- are starting to loosen some restrictions as indicators of the coronavirus toll continues to tend downwards. in spain, children under the age of 14 were allowed outside for
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the first time in six weeks sunday. under the relaxed rules, they are allowed to leave home for up to one hour per day. with a parent wearing masks. italy, which has the second highest confirmed death toll after the united states, says manufacturing could restart as soon as next monday though schools will remain closed until the fall. here in the united states, the white house's coronavirus task force coordinator dr. deborah birx said sunday social distancing will likely last through the summer, even as a growing number of states are preparing to reopen parts of the economy. restaurants and theaters in georgia will be allowed to reopen starting today after other businesses started opening their doorsrs in georgia lastt week, including massage and tattoo parlors and nail and hair salons. some parts of texas are also allowing restaurants to start
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serving eat-in dinners, as governor greg abbott is expected to announce a further loosening of restrictions for the state today. colorado announced a new "safer-at-home" policy as elective surgeries and retail businesses with curbside delivery will be allowed to resume. this is democratic colorado governor jared polis speakakingn cnn sunday. >> we have to make the best ininformed decisions with the information we have. what we know is what matters a lot more than the date the stay at home ends, is what we do going forward and how we have an ongoing, sustainable weight -- psychologically, from a health perspective -- to have the social distancing we need at the workplace, where people recreate, where people recreate come in across the board. amy: the denver mayor extended denver's stay-at-home order to may 8, saying more testing and tracing of the coronavirus is
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needed before reopening. there are over 1300 confirmed cases of coronavirus in colorado , with close to 700 reported deaths. here in new york, governor andrew cuomo said construction and manufacturing in less-affected parts of the state may be able to open after may 15, when the state's lockdown order is set to expire. meanwhile, governor cuomo warns new york will soon have to slash aid to local governments by over $8 billion, while cutting state agency budgets by 10%, unless congress agrees to a bailout. last week, senate republican majority leader mitch mcconnell drew outrage from governors around the country when he suggested state governments should declare bankruptcy, rather than receive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid. the centers for disease control and prevention updated its list of possible symptoms for the novel coronavirus this weekend to include chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headaches, a sore throat,
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and a loss of taste or smell. doctors around the country are reporting an alarming number of young and middlele-aged people infected with covid-19 have been dying of s strokes, including those who barely p presenteded r sysymptoms of the e disease. in oakland, california, video showing outreach workers for the city's unhoused population pinned to the ground and arrested by police has prompted outrage. the outreach workers -- who are themselves unhouoused -- had ben distributing water, food, and supplies to ththose in need. police later admitted theyey thought one of the targeted individualals, a black man, matched the e description of a suspect t in a local crime. the fallout contntinues from president trump's dangerous suggestion last week that injecting disinfectants could help patients sick with covid-19. governors and other state officials around the country have reported a spike in phone calls about taking disinfectants after trump's remarks thursday.
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this is maryland's republican governor larry hogan speaking on abc news. > when misinformation comomet or you j just say s something tt pops in your head, it doesn't wrong message. wrong message. a it hundreds of calls coming in asking if it was right to ingest clorox or alcohol cleaning products, whether that was going to help them fight the virus. we had to put out that wanting to make sure that people were not doing something g like that which would kill people. amy: trump attempted to walk back his comments friday, saying he was being "sarcastic." he suggested on twitter this weekend that he might stop holding dailily coronavirus briefings following the recent backlash, saying they are "not worth the time and effort." meanwhile, the fda had to issue meanwhile, the fda had to issue warnings against people self-medicating with anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine friday
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after multiple deaths and poisonings were reported. president trump has repeatedly touted these drugs, telling americans s try it. the world health organization is cautioning governmenents against issuing so-calledd immunity passports, warning there is no evididence people who'o've recod from c covid-19 are immune to re-infection. chile has s said it will move forward d issuing certificatateo peopople who have recovevered fm covid-19, allowing them to resume work. on saturday, thousands of p peoe took part t in a "cancel the re" car protest saturday. the acaction was organized by te paparty for r socialisism and liberation. this is a protester speaking in los angeles. --democrats and republicans and let the banks and other people. that is why we're here today. they have been telling this for years, for years, that we don't have the money, that we don't have the power to bailout the people. somehow in crisis when the
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economy has to shut down, when capitalism has to take a backseat, the workers become the essential class. amy: activists have been calling for a moratorium on rents for the duration of the coronavirus crisis as unemployment numbers continue to surge. president trump signed off on the latest $484 billion coronavirus relief bill friday but neither of the relief bills passed so far includes any assistance for people struggling to pay rent. the congressional budget office is projecting the unemployment rate in the u.s. will remain high for at least the next 18 months as the u.s. recovers from the pandemic. the unemployment rate is projected to be at 10% at the end of 2021 -- higher than it -- other times and a small correction, higher than the 2008 and ision of 14% and to be between
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16% through the fall of this year, though some analyses of the true rate of unemployment put that numbeber much higher. a small correction from above, there are over 13,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in colorado with close to 700 reportrted deathshs. in washihington state, 111 w wos at a tyson foods chicken -- meat processing plant have tested positive for covid-19. it's the latest in a series of outbreaks of the virus at by tyson,king plants smithfield, and gbs. a trade group in delaware says chilean chickens were recently killed and disclosed other carcasses after labor shortages left it unable to process the birds for the market. john tyson, chair of tyson foods, warned in a full
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page ad -- "the food supply chain is breaking." new evidence has surfaced that may help corroborate a claim by a former staffffer of f joe bidn who says he sexuxually assaulted her in 1993. tara reade publicly accused biden just last month but says she first told her mother and a few others about the incident shortly afteter it happenened. over the weeeekend, archivival o emerged of reade's mother anonymouslcalling into larry king's show on cncnn in 1993 and making a reference to what happened to o her daughter. >> i am wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in washington? my daughter has just left there after working for prominent senator and could not get through with her problems at all and the only thing she could have done was go to the press and she chose to not do it -- >> she had a story to tell but
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out of respect for the person she worked for, she did not tell it. >> that is t true. amy: t tara reade hahas confirmd the voice of the calleler was hr mother who died in 2016. joe biden's campmpaign has denid reade's sexual assault claim, calling her r allegation is -- allegation untrue. in other news about joe biden, progressive organizations sunrise movement a and justice democrats are demanding joe biden remove formemer treasury secretary larry summers as an economic adviser. "larry summers' legacy is advocating for policies that contributed to the skyrocketing inequality and climate crisis we're living with today," thehe groups said. summers previously worked in the clinton and obama administrations. he has also been tied to convicted sexual predator and sex trafficker jeffrey epstein. the biden campaign says summers is part of an informal network of expertsts and does not holdla formal positioion in thehe camp. in texas, the last remaining patient from the mass shooting atat an el paso walmart last august hasas died.
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guillermo garcia and his wife were both shot multiple times during the rampage but his wife survived. shortly before the massacre, patrick crusius published a racist online manifesto echoing president trump's rhetoric about an invasion of immigrants. renowned human, rights advocate abdullah al-hamid has reportedly died in jail. al-hamid co-founded the saudi civil and political rights association and was awarded the 2018 right livelihood award. he had been imprisoned since 2013 for his activism and had been in a coma after having a stroke earlier this month. the executive director of the right livelihood foundation set -- the news comes as amnesty international reports saudi
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arabia executed 184 people last year -- a record for thehe coununtry. yemen is facing a new political crisis. on s sunday, separatists in southern yemen dececlared self-rule in the port city of aden and nearby provinces. the e separatists have the backg of the united arab emirates. the saudi-backed yemeni government blasted the move, warning of "dangerous and catastrophic consequences." the two factions had been on the same side in the u.s.-backed war against the houthi rebels. this comes as the united nations is attempting to secure a nationwide truce i in a bid to contain the coronavirus. brazil's powerful justice minister has resigned, accusing far-right president jair bolsonaro of illegally firing the federal police chief. sergio moro became the eighth cabinet member and the most high profile, to depart in the 15 months since bolsonaro took office. moro once oversaw a vast anti-corruption investigation known as "operation car wash" and prosecuted former president
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lula da silva fofor alleged corruption, charges that lula says were politically motivated and designed to keep him from running for the presidency again. moro quit friday just hours after bolsonaro fired the federal police chief, who was investigating bolsonaro's political allies and two of his sons. for corruption and ties to mafia -- flavio bolsonaro is under investigation for corruption and ties to mafia in rio de janeiro. another son, carlos bolsonaro, is charged with leading a criminal fake news racket that's made threats against political opponents while spreading defamatory misinformation. this all comes as president bolsonaro faces widespread criticism for minimizing the dangers of the coronavirus outbreak. the death toll in brazil has topped 4000 and hospititals rept being oveverwhelmed with sisick papatients. in environmental news, new research finds populations of land-dwelling insects around the world have plummeted by about 25% over the last three decades. publishing in the journal "science," german researchers
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blame the drop in arthropods on a critical loss of habitat, driven by urbanization and deforestation.n. and thosose are some of the headlinenes. this is demomocracy now!, democracynow.org, the quaranante report. i'm amy goodman. as the coronavirus continues to spread and mucuch of the u.s. remains on lockdown, abobortion righghts are under attack acrors the coununtry. states including alabama, iowa, louisiana ohio, oklahoma, , tennessee, texas, and more have all attempted to restrict access to ababortion a as part f their responsese to the pandemi. abortions in texas were briefly effectively babanned last week after r a federal apappeals cout ruled d mondayhahat thstatate cod restri a abortion seicices asas it reonds to ththe paemici. "the washingn n postcallededhe move "the most extremehutdown of artion access alleded by federal courtsinince t supupre court's s 19 roe v vwade decionon decred acce to ortion aonstititionall ght.t."
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but weesesday,epubublin goveor g greabbobottssued a new execive ordeloosenin the rerictionsn medica procedes and aowing abtion servic to procd. thfight ov abortioaccess s sparkea prolond legal battlend for weeks forced people seeking abortions to leave the state of texas to receive medical care. planned parenthood reported a 706% increase in abortion appointments for people crossing state lines from texas in -- to providers in colorado, new mexico, and d nevada. to look at the ongoing fight for abortion access in texas and other states, we are joined by alexis mcgill johnson, the acting president and ceo of the planned parenthoodod federatioif america. she's joining us from new york city. welcome to dememocracycy now! >> t thank you so mumuch for hag me. amy: why don't you just give us
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a nationwide survey ofof what is happening to abobortion access n the ununited states. >> absolutely. look, as you talked earlier, we haveve alreadydy seehohow covids laid bare the challenges in our public health care infrastrucucture, saying howow y people -- particularly lolow income, peoplele of c color whoe expressing the disproporortionae impact of the scare -- - and at the same time that we ee all grapplining with what it means o lilive in this pandemimic, numbf governors across the country have decided thahat th pandemi was ththe rightht time to create exexecutive orderer to restricte access to o abortion. the impact. seenn is lee fc people continue toto getn their cars to drive thousands of miles to colororado, too california, to new mexi just to ofexasas tseek access
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get didicationbobortio whichch is just two pills taken over 24 hours. we have been in n a pushback --a legal pushback with a number of stateses as well as the circuit court judges, and there has been in incredible emotional whiplash related to it as our providers have been calling patients andd telling them their appointments are now canceled or that they impact have to -- in fact have to seek ananother method. this is reallyly unconscionable, the people would use the pandemic to restrict access to health care when in fact we should be trying to find ways to expand health care. amy: let's talk about texas. the battle that has been going on in the court. this happens in other places as well, tennessee, alabama, oklahoma, as the governor attempts to restrict abortion. what is happppening at the court level? one a after another decision. >> we were at court over four
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times in the last coupuple of weeks withth our parartners on e ground. essentially, where we are now is the governor is trying to loosen the restriction -- in fact, because he is tryiyi to open the state, which shows you this was jujust a sham to begin with. the real concernrn around spreading access -- spspreading cocovid using abortion as a guge forr that reallyly is not legitimate.. so right now we have a loose restriion n inexas. there are other states where we are continuing to fightht. amy: can n you t talk about alabama,t is happening there? there for injection that treats abortion like all medical care, allowing physicians to provide abortion using their medical judgment? >> yes. --terms of all thee respect
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with resespect to alabama and tennessee, we are using eveverythihing and our measure. we have e to be e able to defefd access to abortion in these various states wiwith executive ororders coming g down. we are tryining to ensure that people seeking abortioion get access as immediately as they can. i think when you lookok back in the bigger picture, what you're seeing is a number of reststrictions a around abortio. just last year there were 300 rerestrictions introduceced to 7 states across the cocountry. what we are e looking at iss infrastrucucture that has really tried to limit access to ababortion. when youayer a pandemic on top of that, we e feeling obviousl the impt of tha many stes -- the are fi
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stat now essentilyly aboion deserts, where it d diffilt to aess. we a adding these addional restrictions on it, which makes it even more unsustainable. amymy: explain what youou referd to as medication a abortion. you have the surgery, the procedure, and you have got the double pill. >> yes.. medication abortion is offffered earlier r in t the gestational periodod. it r really requires just two pills that thee person seseeking abortion would takake within a 4 hour period. this is not a procedure that extensive amount of ppe. it d does not require in many cases, we're able to see a patient now the expansion of thisealth via skype like and take the patient and then -- that patient will come and pick up the prescriptioion and go hoe and take that medication safely
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at home. and then we are abable to follow viacare, againin, telehehealth come much way that the cocountries operating right now w in telehehealth -- telemedicinene. what we'rere seeing is our again, 1000 driving mimiles - -- women are the majoy of heaealth-care w workers, thte majority of people homeschoooolg right now, the majority of essential w workers. our bodies have literarally been deemeded essential and yet our boes -- controlf our boes inhe rht to control our bodies has not. so we are seeing them drive thousands of m miles to get two pills and get back in a car and drive ananother 1000 miles home through various states. amy: alexis mcgill johnson, you co-authored a piece for "essence magazine" last week headlined
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"your job is deemed essential, but your abortion is not: black low-wage women in texas are being robbed of their humanity," and you wrote -- "nonwhite women are more likely to hold jobs deemed "essential" than any other demographic. even though your job has been deemed essential, your humanity, your ability to earn a living wage, your ability to access health care -- pandemic or not -- is not. and now in the state of texas and several others your legal ability to access abortion is currently up in the air for a court to decide." explain the demographics that you're talalking about and talk about women ofof color accessing abortion being e even more challenged. >> absbsolutely. i think this is really y what we have seen in the public health infrastructure around covid. we have s seen the number off deaths -- covid is touching all of us regardless of age and class and race, and yet the folks who are dying -- the folks
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who are being most subjected to fatality are largely black and areas.in major urban and this challenge that are access to public health h care infrastrtructure has already ben challenged, and then you layer on bias, layer on discrimination frankly,uries, quite that have concluded in fact that we are particularly women of color are the ones who are not able to get the right amount of care. so when you layer on other challenges around like maternal mortality regardless of income, our bodies literally are much more subject to dying during childbirth or just thereafter because of the bias built into discrimination system. when i look at these executive orders in states that are the same states that did not expand
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medicaid, states who have been layering on these restrictions largely f for -- affectingg low-income womomen of c color, o me, it is s no surpris that we are the ones been called in. we are the ones being asked to be essential workers and yet our ability to actually control our own bodieies and really control our own futures and freedom is being denied by the state. amy: can you talk about the issue of women getting access, what you recommend where access is challenged? even before the pandemic, the closing of women's health -- so often you can have a situation where there is only one or two in a state. in this new service that you're now offering, telehealth service is offefering i informan ababout sexual and reproductive health?
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>> >> absolutely. it is a sisilver lining in this pandemic that planned parenthood, and many other health providersrs have actually been able to really lean into telehealth infrastructure and provide service. i think the quot wase years in 10 days." the fact that we will be in all 50 states by the end of this month to provide access to screenings, to family-planning, and prep, to provide some wraparound service around getting g acce to abortion n is given as a lifeline into areasas particularly where the shelter-in-plans are going to continue as welasas rur areas where there manonot be acacce to health care broadly. som is a silvererining fo
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and d agn n in my states, the challeng to c covids esseiaially accelerating, big concern we should all have come about the impact not just of roe being overturned,d, but of literally watchihing it being guided by these restrictions year after year after year. we have to think about how we're going to get the 25 m million women who lived in states that are increasingly restrictive, access to safe and legal abortion should they need it. and that is currently what we are working on right now. amy: alexis mcgill johnson, we want to ask you to stay with us as we move into our next admit. alexis mcgill johnsoson is the acting president and ceo of the planned parenthood federatationf america.a. when we come back,k, as multiple states t try to restrict accesso abortion during the pandemic, we're going to look at a powerful new dramatic film t tht follows a 17-year-old girl as she travels from her small town in pennsylvania to new york city
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to get an abortion without haviving to notify her parentst. ththe film i is called "never ry sometimes always." stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: "intermezzo" by the met orchestra performed remotely together over the weekend as part of their "at-home gala." this is democracy now!, democracynowow.org, the quarante rereport. i'm amy goodman. as multiple states m move to further restrict a access to abortions s during the pandemic, we are turning now to a powerful new dramatic film that follows a 17-year-old girl who travels from her small town in pennsylvania to new york city to get an abortion without having to notify her parents.
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autumn callahan is played by sidney flanigan in an incredible debut performance. this is the trailer for "never rarely sometimes always." >> i d not see you at school totoday. > i wt to the doctor. >> whais wrong? >> grow problems. >> you ever wish youerere de? all the time. >> this is the most natural sounyou' ever hear. >> i'm just not readyo o be a mom.m. >> whe else coululd you go? >> nowheren pennsylvania. >> i think you should yy otheher ace. york? you going to new what are you doing there? >> meeting famil >> who came with you tayay?
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>> i coun. >> do yohave a place to stay tonigh i know you came fromar away. >> it is not safe here. i want make sure you a safe. >> i know that this is hard. >> i am going to ask you some quesonons. itan be really personal. arely,wer ver, sometime always. amy:hat'the trair for "never rely somemes alwa," a w indepeent filmhat priered athe sundae film festival in january and hit
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-- it was supposed to hit theaters in march, just as they were closing in response to the pandemic. now the film is available online for at-home viewing. for r more, we are joinened by e film's didirector and writer ela hittman. eliza, congratulations on this deeply moving profound film. you could never have predicted what would happen with this pandemic when your film hit, and yet it is so instructive for what women face today and young peoplele. take us on the journey of your film, why you decided to do this, a young woman making this journey to get an abortion because of restrictions on choice in her home community. >> i first started thinking aboutt this filmlm i in 2012 afr rereading aboutut the death of a
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girl in n ireland. just to educate myselflf, i begn reading about the history of the eighth them emmett in irelandnd bubut also thinkining a lot abot how r restrictive each state can be in the united statetes. i was thinking abobout the joury that womomen take from rural a s into u urban areas when they cannot get accccess. and for me, there's something so powerful and heroioic about that journey. i began to asksk myself why haven't i seen it represented on film before? abouty times films abortion tend to focus on the moral dilemma, but i thoughtht t could be a r really powerful s y to explore how hard it is to get a legal abortion in cocontempory america. r research on a personal invesestigation of f te issue. i i went to d different pregnany
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cacare centers in n rural pennsysylvania, took pregnancy tests and took counseling sessions. i c consulted with h planned parenthood in new yorork. i just tried to educate myself as best possible about what the impactct of these restrictive barriers look like on a young woman's life. amy: in this scene from the film , skyler asks her cousin autumn why she wasn't in school. >> you were not at school today. >> i went to the doctor. >> are you ok? >> yeah, i'm fine. >> what's w wro? >> girl pblems.s. cramps?-- bad i get those, too. don't you ever just wish you were a dude? >> all the time.
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"never this scene from rarely sometimes always," i'm going to play another clip. autumn goes to what is called a crisis pregnancy center, which tells her that heher pregnancy test is positive. >> that okoks li a a posive. >> it it is positive, is the anyway way it ululd bnegagati? > no. a positive is always a positive. aboututza hittman, talk this so-called preregnancy criss centerer that autumnn finds in r totown. myselfly wawanted to put in the shoes of the charactcter. i asked myself, if i lived in the small town and chose a town, what wouould have e access to ii was a young womaman in crisis?s? i went into the localal argosy
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care center a and i signed in ad i i took a test. i i really went through the dialogue that the charactct goes through h in the film. what struck me mosost from clinc to clinic is that the women who worked there are not licensed memedical physicians.s. they arere just laymanan vololus who have a very specific reliligious agenda and the services that they offered art legitimate or medical -- are not legitimate or medical. amy: this is clear in the film were they try to scare her. this film is not a documentary. thisis is a featured dramatic fm . the research you did about the journey that autumn takes from pennsylvania -- again, this is a story of a young woman, 17-year-old, who is in
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pennsylvania, one of 37 states that requires parental involvement for minors seeking abortion -- she does not feel comfortable telling her parents, so she makeses h her way with hr cousin to new york city. you went on ththis journey yourself? >> i did. i took the only greyhound bus that left from the town in pennsylvania.. i really got a chahancto sort of absorb the landscape that would be around ththe c character a ae in to report authority and tried to dococument my own experiences and filtered them almost through the eyes of the character. bebecause it was i important foe thatat the film be grorounded in authenticity and credibility. and i did not want to just sort of right f from whatat i had red online or in booooks, and wanted to have a firsthand experience with the issues that the film explores. amy: now i want to go to aa clip
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that b brings in the title o ofr film "never rarely sometimes always." actually filmed this at the planned parenthood clinic in new york. in new yoyorkember cityty, womoman who plays her, s auautumn a numumber of questions about her life. >> i'm would ask you some questions. they can be really personal. all you have to do is answer either never, rarely, sometimes, or a always mostst of kind o ofe multiple-choice but not a test. ok? in the past year, your partner has refused to wear a condom. never, rarely, sometimes, always. >> sometimes. >> ok. and your partner messeses with your birth control or tries to get you pregnant when you don't want to bebe?
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sometimimes,ly, always. >> never. >> ok. your partner has threatened or frightened you? never, rarely, sometimes, always. this? are you asking me >> i want to make sure you are safe. your partner has threatened or frightened you never, rarely, sometimes, always? >> um, rarely. >> ok.k. your partner has hit you, slap to come or physically hurt you never, rarely, sometimes, always?
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has yoyour partnerer ever hit y, slapped you, or physically hurt you? is someone hurtingng you? it's ok. just a couple of more questions, all right? made you haveas sex when you didn't want to never, rarely, sometimes, always? it's ok. i wawant to make sure e you aree and i want to help you if i can. just one more question for you,
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ok, autumn? has anyone forced you into a sexual act ever in your lifetime, yes or no? >> yeah. amy: that is a clip from "never rarely sometimes always." the director and writer is eliza hittman. this is a deeply emotiononal, powerful moment t at the core of in the planneda, parenthood clinic in new york where she has taken this journey . shshe's hahad to wait t in new k city with her cousin. dangerse about what the that young woman and any woman faces if they can't be in their own town and do a film -- the core of this momenent. c character hass been navigating thehese very deeply comomplex personanal,
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intimate issssues alolone, even though her cousin is with her and she has s support of a fried and a peer who is nonjudgmental. the core o of what she's doioin, what she's dealing g with alone, this pivivotal moment in the fim where in the safety of a counselor's office,e, she breaks downwn from the journey of what she has been through. i think whenen women don't have access, when they don't have proper sex eduducation, and they don't have e resources andd mon, you knonow, they are left to navigate a verery complex bureaucratatic legal sysystem, reproductiveve system alone. this is an important moment in the film. yeah, she is crumbling. we shot that scenene in margaret sanger witith the generosity of planned parenenthood allowing us
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to use the facility. and the counselor acting witith her in the scene is a trained counselor who traiained at pland parenthood that i met at choices clinic in queens. have: alexis mcgill johnsonon, you gotten an increased number of reports of women having to travel these long distances or any spspecific story in this country of what is happening to women right now? >> yes, absolulutely. what eliza has s done here in brbringing this filmlm o life your narrative is so reflective of what we have seen, not just in the last few weeksks around the executive orders, but what w we honestly have sing ovr thehest fefew y years as restrictions g go into place in these various s states, and whether or not while many of them are being appealed, there is still a trememendous amount f confusion around the
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restrictions. twore seeing women who have do e exactly as autumn does, fid aa friend who will travel with them, will go the journey w who may not have the resources to pay for the procedure, muchh les pay for a hotell room. i think that challenge of what -- is saying is being being more intensifieded these past months with thehe executive ororders. eliza could nonot have predicted part would imitate life so quickly. but t it is such an important fm forr u us to really grapple with the amount of restrictions ththt women are e facing. more women having later abortions because of their fear right now of going to hospitalals or beieing told that abtition is not essential. >> yeah, absolutely.
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we saw just in louisisiana, the supreme court t is reviewing a case r right now and i talked ta woman who very sisimilarly wento a a crisis p pregnancy center, s promised over r and overer they woululd help h her get access tn aborortion, and pushed herer muh later into her p pregnancy until the e point where shshe had to k a surgicical abortion. the stigmatizationon that shamig of women, not just a providers and organizations s like planned parenthood s shaming women aroud their need to o seek an abortio, i i think is something really impoportant and powerful that ts film really brings out. amy: finally, eliza hittman, can you talk about what it means for this film to come out now? you expect a movie theaters around the country to be running this film. , and yet rave reviews it comes at this time -- in one
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sense, maiming or access to people all over the globe seeing it, but also at a time when the film festivals, one after another, are being canceled or it looks like they might be from the toronto international film festival to the sundance film festival, what does this all mean for you as a director and a writer, different kind of access? you're having q&a's online virtual meetings with young women araround the country. i watched one when you were talking to one -- young woman in you tall run by planned parenthood there. >> we did not expect others to shutter in thehe middle -- in te beginning of our theatatrical .elease, b but we had to pivot . think about how t the film could stilill reach audiences at this very vulnerablble moment. and because of evererything that is happening in the states that we talked about, we felt like it was an opportunity to try y and push the film into the homes of
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younung women who might be like autumn who are very much alone with this issue and without accessss. so thehe film's urgency tragicay and we hope that people a are able to accesess it ononline. we are doing a a lot of grassros ououtreach with planned parenthd and an organization to make sure ththat people can see it because they are the audience that i made the film for. amy: eliza hittman, congratulations on this film hitting out of very, to say the least, and ususual time but a fm like this very critical to be seen at ththis time. eliza hittman is a writer and director of "never rarely sometimes always." and i want to thank alexis mcgill johnson a acting presidet , and ceo ofof the planned parenthood federation of america. whenen we come back, we look at
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what is being tested now, what are the drurugs to o deal with covid-19, what should we understand this coming as a follow-up from president trump suggesting that maybe shohould be ingested or injecteted into the human bo, a very dangerous suggestion that now poison centers around the country are having to deal with. stay with us s sto. ♪ [music break]
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aim a amy: the met t orchestra ad cosese as rt o of its "at-home gala." this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. more than 207,000 people have died worldwide from covid-19, but there are still no drugs proven to help treat the disease. this comes as fallout continuess from president trump's dangerous suggestion last week that
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injecting or disinfectants could help ingesting disinfectants could help patients sick with the coronavirus. pres. trump: then i see the disinfectant not set out in a minute. is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? number.or tremendous it will be interesting to check that. amy: after president trump's remarks thursday, governors and other state officials reported a spike in phone calls about taking disinfectants. trump attempted to walk back his comments saying he was being "sarcastic." but everyone saw the videotape. meanwhile, the fda has issued warnings against people self-medicating with anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine -- medications again president trump erroneously recommmmded -- after multiple deaths and poisonings were e reported. for more, we're joined by tanya lewis, associate editor for
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health and medicine at scientific american, whose recent piece is headlined "here's what we know about the most touted drugs tested for covid-19." welcome to democracy now! starart off by just responding o this latest presidential suggestion and the horror of it for states around the country that reported hundreds and hundreds of people calling in to ask if it was ok tongest clorox or lysol. thereyou mentioned, --sidident's comments really they were not based in any sort of scientific evidence. ththere's a lot of danger in injecting these types ofof substances into the body.. i am not quite surure what the president was referring to exactly, but those e disinfectas ardefinitelyly recommendeded for use on surfaces, not on the
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human body or in the human body. amy: tanya lewis, can you talk about what is being looked at right now? drug thate, another he recommended was hydroxychloroquine, and yet the studies have not been done. talk about the latest round of studies that have just begun, resultlts of which have just ben to come out. drugsyou mentioned, the hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine e are antimalarial drugs that are also used sometimess for rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, whicich are autoimmune disorders. they are now being tested in clinical trials for covid-19 because there is s some suggesen they might worork as a an antivl or to prevent replication of the virus, as well as to affect the immune system and kinda prevent that sort of rununaway immune reaction thahat was see in somef
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the most severe cases. t thoseands rightht now, clinical trials are ongngoing. there have been a few studies that have come out, but ththese were not randomizezed clinical trials. basically, in order to show any kind of benefit, you need to have a randomized -- amy: expxplain what randomized means. >> that t means you'rereiving a random subset t of patients the drug a and a random subset a placebo. that way you can really compare the effect of the drug. amy: so they don't know if they're getting the actual drug or the placebo, like nothing come a fake. it is very hard to do that, right, patients are sick in the present recommend a drug that could say become a very hard to have them be willing to join a randomized stutudy whehere they mimight t actutuly getet the dr. >> exactly. that is the concern n here. if you give patientntthe choice, most o of the time they will sa, yes, giving the drugg becausese
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there realally isn't anything ee avaiailable.e. in order to show there's a benefit or not, we need to have these types of randomized trials. amy: i want to turn to stat news that reports a summary of ththe study results were reportedly inadvertently posted to the website of the world health organizazation. according to the results which were quickly removed from the site, the drug azithromycin -- the manufacturer gilead sciences refuted the results saying the data suggested the potential benefit. world health organization spokesperson told stat news a draft manuscript was provided by the authors to who and inadvertently posted on the website and taken down as soon as the mistake was noticed. it is now undergoing peer review and waiting for a final version before who comments on it. , talk abouts
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remdisiverer a and what we knowo far. >> rememdesivir is anotherr antiviral drug thais supposed to work by interriring wh ththe virurus replicati.. it was ogiginalldevelopefor ebola, but was later dededed- ey decid notot t usese i bebeuse it w not as effective asomome of the other trements. effectivend to be against many oththe conavivirus .like e rs and ms inin mice it was the canandidate butut aso mentnened, some ofof t early data that was leaked may suggest it may not have much of a benet t and yot decree the risk of death. of coue,e, havtoay the da ve not yet been made widely available and are not peer-reviewed, so it is hard to commt t on tt data without seeinghe full data. we will justave to wait t and see in n the coming weeks for te
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official data is released, how effective it really is or not. amy: if you u could talk about what c convalescent t plasma is? >> sure. that is another potential treatment that is beingng teste. basically, when you take the blood plasma, it t is everything exexcept for the reded blood ce. you take the plasma from somebody who has recovered from the disease -- in this case, covid-19 -- - and put that plasa into a patient who is currently battling the virus and then the idea is thatat the antibodieiesm that first patient willl help te current patient certified off the virus. this is still fairly preliminary. there arere some trials goioingn righght now. at this point, we will have to see but it is potentially promising a avenue of treatment. amy: in the last 30 seconds, can you talk about the fda just
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approving home kids? kids?e are thesese fred home to test fr covid-19 or for antibodies? tests.ey are bo k kinds of the ones that i am m more familr testasically t to tell whether or not you currently haveve c covid-19. just to clarify, these at-home kits,its are collectionn so you just collect a sample withth a nasal swab b and senatf to the l lab to be tested. amamy: and t the reliaiability f this? >> att this point, it is pretty early but t we think they are fairlyeliaiabl but thehere'ss always a a risk that if you're t swabbing correctly, maybe would have a false negative. amy: tanya lewis, thank you for being with us come associate editor for health and medicine at scientific american. we will link to your piece
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"here's what we know about the most touted drugs tested for covid-19." that does it for our show. democracy now! is working with as few people onsite as possible. the majority of our amazing team is working from home. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]
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hello. welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. we begin here in japan where the government is maintaining a sense of caution and urging people not to relax social distancing despite a recent decrease in new coronavirus infections in tokyo. a state ofrg

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